News of the company’s prediction comes via a recent SEC Filing, which states the decrease in Activision Blizzard’s workforce would likely lead to longer production time for games currently in development. While it’s true the company will be looking to replace much of the staff it let go with more developers and programmers, the time in which it takes to make a quality AAA-game is too long to reflect monetarily in the near future.
It should be said while the company expects to be negatively impacted by the decisions made in February, things haven’t been looking good for Activision Blizzard recently either. Having split with Bungie and losing all rights to the Destiny franchise, shares in the company stock dropped noticeably following the break-up. What was once a 10-year deal between the publisher and developer was ended abruptly, with Bungie now having full creative freedom on its live-service sci-fi shooter.
Looking back as far as November, BlizzCon left many fans upset and concerned with the exclusion of a proper reveal of Diablo 4, and instead were treated to learning of the mobile-exclusive title Diablo Immortal. The announcement reflects Activision Blizzard’s push to bring more games to mobile platforms, which is likely to happen to all of the company’s existing IP. This, plus the announcement of Diablo Immortal, also led to a drop in share prices for the company.
While the past six month have painted a bleak picture for Activision Blizzard, there are still strong expectations in certain areas. As it’s currently in the middle of what the company’s CEO Eric Hirshberg considers the “Best 3 Year Slate of Call of Duty”, the recent release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is seeing its highly-popular Blackout mode continue to get regular updates and timed-custom matches for its online playlist.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
